Party and Government: An Inquiry into the Relationship between Governments and Supporting Parties in Liberal Democracies

✍ Scribed by Jean Blondel, Maurizio Cotta (eds.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 294
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Party and Government is an eleven-country study of the relationship between the governments of liberal democracies, mainly from Western Europe, but also including the United States and India, and the parties which support these governments. It examines this relationship at the three levels at which governments and parties connect: appointments, policy-making, and patronage. The emphasis is on a two-way relationship: parties influence governments but governments also influence parties. The extent and the direction of this influence varies from country to country. In some cases, governments and parties are almost autonomous from each other, as in the United States; in other cases, on the contrary, there is considerable power of one over the other: sometimes the party dominates, sometimes the government.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Introduction....Pages 1-21
Britain: A Textbook Case of Government-Supporting Party Relationship....Pages 22-39
France: Party Government at Last?....Pages 40-60
Sweden: From Stability to Instability?....Pages 61-77
Germany: Party Influence or Chancellor Rule?....Pages 78-90
Austria: Party Government Within Limits....Pages 91-109
Finland: Operational Cabinet Autonomy in a Party-Centred System....Pages 110-127
The Netherlands: Parties Between Power and Principle....Pages 128-152
Belgium: Still the Age of Party Government?....Pages 153-179
Italy: Sunset of a Partitocracy....Pages 180-201
The United States: Divided Government and Divided Parties....Pages 202-224
India: How a Government Party Decays when Government Swallows Party....Pages 225-248
Conclusion....Pages 249-262
Back Matter....Pages 263-284

✦ Subjects

Comparative Politics;Political Science;Political Theory